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Are Americans Leaving Facebook in Droves?

It is likely only a matter of time before Facebook goes the way of Friendster and Myspace. If you are wondering what Friendster and Myspace are, others may be doing the same about Facebook in a few short years. The Guardian reports that users are beginning to leave Facebook in droves. Excerpt:

Facebook has lost 10 million users in the US and seen no growth in
monthly visitors in the UK over the past year, according to data from
market research firm Nielsen.

Research shows that the number of unique visitors to the Facebook website from computers, smartphones and tablets has fallen from 153m in March 2012 to 142m in March this year, having peaked at 158m last August.

The
news came as Facebook announced its latest quarterly results, saying it
had 1.11 billion monthly active users around the world, up 23% from a
year ago. Mobile monthly active users were 751 million, up 54%. But much
of the growth is coming from poorer nations, where advertising revenues
are lower.

The article speculates that the drop in web traffic may not indicate an equally large drop off in actual use, as many people may simply be using Facebook's smartphone app instead of visiting the website. But it is also quite likely that many people have begun to leave Facebook over privacy concerns.